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Sunday, October 24, 2010

11 Month Burger-Free Streak Ends: Violetta

Broke it!

It's been 11 months since I last tackled that $21 burger, commencing a red-meat induced crazed obsessive crush on Grace's ridiculously hot sommelier. But a lot has changed since then: Greek Tutor GT got deported for mandatory Greek Military service, my beloved red Audi officially licensed "NTOMATA" (TOMATO in Greeklish) got totaled on the 405 by some nitwit, and I moved to Portland. Now living the car-less-polar fleecey-student life, the itching for a burger has come back. Either that or a gentle reminder from my 6-foot frame that I've been neglecting my 1,000% of-your-daily-iron-allowance pills for the last seven months. Whoops. Time to eat a burger.

And if I'm going to eat a burger, I'm going to do it right.

This was a big occasion and I wasn't about to blow it on a quarter pounder or some skanky T.G.I.Friday's thang. On the other hand, I didn't need no stinking fancy resturant to end my streak. Afterall, a burger is fast food. I would end it all at one of Portland's finest slow fast food joints: Violetta. A joint teamed with the city's parks and recreations located smack dab in the middle of Director Park in the city center. I was going to end it with a 1/2 lb grass feed, dry aged black angus beef patty from Highland Oak Farm in Scio, OR lodged between a brioche bun baked by Grand Central Bakery.

It's the burger Portlanders rave about.

To start, I began with a glass of the juicy house red made for Violletta by local Torii Mor Winery.

As you can see from exhibit a below, the burger is all from the 'hood.

Exhibit a

Instead of getting jiggy with it and ordering of their prized "Oregon Blue Burger" I opted for the simple Violetta Burger ($7.50) equipped with house burger sauce, butter lettuce (obviously), red onion and their prized "10 hour tomatoes," and super dills.

Straight up burger

The burger was everything it should (or at least a humble novice like me thinks so); the spongy bun sinking in and giving way to the juicy beef patty plus friends upon first bite. It was the righteous amount of all burger compenents in one. I smiled and drooled. I felt Patriotic. It wasn't life changing, but it made me very happy.

Tha HIZ got the Violetta with Bacon and Cheese ($8.50) which I snagged a few bites off of. Delicious. But I liked my simple burger the best.

Although Violetta has heavily sought after white truffle fries and Oregonzola fries, we went for the classics sharing a large order of the Hand Cut Yukon Gold Potato Fries ($5.00) with Harissa Ketchup and Herbed Aioli. Over the moon fries; perfectly crispy outside but slightly doughy inside.

It's been 11 months since I last tackled that $21 burger, commencing a red-meat induced crazed obsessive crush on Grace's ridiculously hot sommelier. But a lot has changed since then: Greek Tutor GT got deported for mandatory Greek Military service, my beloved red Audi officially licensed "NTOMATA" (TOMATO in Greeklish) got totaled on the 405 by some nitwit, and I moved to Portland. Now living the car-less-polar fleecey-student life, the itching for a burger has come back. Either that or a gentle reminder from my 6-foot frame that I've been neglecting my 1,000% of-your-daily-iron-allowance pills for the last seven months. Whoops. Time to eat a burger.

And if I'm going to eat a burger, I'm going to do it right.

This was a big occasion and I wasn't about to blow it on a quarter pounder or some skanky T.G.I.Friday's thang. On the other hand, I didn't need no stinking fancy resturant to end my streak. Afterall, a burger is fast food. I would end it all at one of Portland's finest slow fast food joints: Violetta. A joint teamed with the city's parks and recreations located smack dab in the middle of Director Park in the city center. I was going to end it with a 1/2 lb grass feed, dry aged black angus beef patty from Highland Oak Farm in Scio, OR lodged between a brioche bun baked by Grand Central Bakery.

It's the burger Portlanders rave about.

To start, I began with a glass of the juicy house red made for Violletta by local Torii Mor Winery.

As you can see from exhibit a below, the burger is all from the 'hood.

Exhibit a

Instead of getting jiggy with it and ordering of their prized "Oregon Blue Burger" I opted for the simple Violetta Burger ($7.50) equipped with house burger sauce, butter lettuce (obviously), red onion and their prized "10 hour tomatoes," and super dills.

Straight up burger

The burger was everything it should (or at least a humble novice like me thinks so); the spongy bun sinking in and giving way to the juicy beef patty plus friends upon first bite. It was the righteous amount of all burger compenents in one. I smiled and drooled. I felt Patriotic. It wasn't life changing, but it made me very happy.

Tha HIZ got the Violetta with Bacon and Cheese ($8.50) which I snagged a few bites off of. Delicious. But I liked my simple burger the best.

Although Violetta has heavily sought after white truffle fries and Oregonzola fries, we went for the classics sharing a large order of the Hand Cut Yukon Gold Potato Fries ($5.00) with Harissa Ketchup and Herbed Aioli. Over the moon fries; perfectly crispy outside but slightly doughy inside.